Formula Recommendations or Relactating {reader asks}

“I have a 3 month old grandson and my daughter has recently stopped breast feeding. Now she’s finding out how bad formula really is. The one she is now using is mostly sugar! So now she’s searching for the best formula to use. Can you help?”

My first thought is that mom might easily (or at least with some work) be able to breastfeed again! In fact, I know of women who successfully breastfed adopted children this way, so it can be done. 🙂 If she can find access to a supplementor, this will allow her to be able to breastfeed while using formula or donated breastmilk. It will help stimulate those hormones again and hopefully get milk flowing again. Pumping is also hugely beneficial to get things going again. Making sure she has a good diet and keeps hydrated will help her body produce milk as well as using something like a mama’s milk tea.

Nature’s One is the only one I think that I’ve heard good things of lately. (and was responded with – Nature’s One lists brown rice syrup as the first ingredient in all of their formulas. I suppose it’s better than corn syrup solids, but still… this topic is a tough one.)

A few moms mentioned goat’s milk as an alternative, but it should not be used alone. It should be used in a homemade formula.

If she needs something not too hard to put together, Radiant Life sells a package deal that contains the ingredients to the Weston Price homemade baby formula.

I would encourage the mom to pump and re-lactate as mentioned above. That would be my first recommendation. I am a breastfeeding instructor, and I can assure the mom that she still has adequate hormones to do this. If goat’s milk is used, additional water & nutrients must be added. See askdrsears.com for specifics on this.

My first thought is that she may still be able to breastfeed if she has the desire to do so since that is by far the healthiest choice for baby. If a woman uses a breast pump as often as possible throughout the day her body may get the poin…t and start making milk again. Quinoa is an amazing grain that boosts prolactin levels. However if formula is the only choice then rice formula or goat milk formula is definitely a better way to go then conventional dairy or soy, since they are such strong allergens.

Do you have any other advice for this mama?

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Donielle is a natural momma of two, lover of real foods, and owner and editor of Grand Rapids Natural Living and Naturally Knocked Up. You can usually find her in the kitchen whipping up some nourishing foods, cuddled on the couch reading books to the littles, avoiding the laundry and Mt. Saint Dishes, or tapping away on the laptop. Her husband puts up with her sometimes crazy "hippie" ways, but loves her regardless. Welcome to my home away from home.

Comments

Regarding the last comment, I just want to say that the current recommendation is NOT to specifically avoid allergens just because they are highly allergic. There are other reasons to avoid dairy and soy formulas, but allergies are not one of them (unless the child already shows signs of food allergies). Chances are, the baby boy has already been exposed to both dairy and soy through his mother’s milk (depending on her diet), and if he hasn’t shown a reaction yet, he’s not likely to.

I know this is confusing because for years, the recommendation was to avoid allergens until a specific age, but that has totally changed in the past couple years. Allergists are now encouraging moms to feed their babies highly allergenic foods as soon as they are ready for solids.

I also want to add… regarding the high sugar content… isn’t breast milk very sweet? Of course, hfcs is not what you want in your kids’ main source of food, so I can understand not going the regular formula route, but I can also understand why the natural formula might contain a lot of sugar (or brown rice syrup, which is I suppose only marginally better than hfcs).

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Donielle is an amateur herbalist and natural momma to two littles. She has a passion for nourishing nutrition, natural living, and spreading the word on how food truly affects our health. Her blog Naturally Knocked Up focuses on fertility and reproductive health and her book on natural fertility is now available on Amazon!.